The City lateral recruitment market is struggling to return to pre-Christmas activity levels, with only two firms making notable partner hires. Crowell & Moring has revisited Squire Patton Boggs for another partner hire while Addleshaw Goodard has appointed Linklaters’ real estate disputes head as partner.
Crowell & Moring continues to make prominent hires to its London office, most recently recruiting partner Nicola Phillips to its international dispute resolution group. Phillips has experience in asset-based lending, trade finance, insurance, and employment-related disputes. She has also worked on cross-border investigations in Europe and the Middle East as well as complex civil fraud cases.
Crowell chair Philip Inglima commented: ‘Nicola is seen as a go-to commercial litigator in the industry, and we are thrilled to have someone of her calibre join the firm. Her addition continues our strategic growth efforts in London and further enhances our capabilities.’
Philips is the seventh Squire partner to join Crowell’s London office in the past year and follows the hires of debt finance partner Robin Baillie, corporate and financial services partner Andrew Knight, restructuring partner Pail Muscutt, corporate partner Cathryn Williams and disputes partner Laurence Winston.
Meanwhile, Linklaters has lost its real estate disputes head Frances Richardson to Addleshaw Goodard where she has joined as partner in the real estate team. Richardson spent 17 years at Linklaters and became head of the firm’s real estate disputes team in 2017. She has experience in complex disputes for investors, developers, landlords, tenants and insolvency practitioners.
Addleshaw divisional managing partner Adrian Collins told Legal Business: ‘Real estate is a key strategic focus for our firm and as well as an increased demand for disputes advice, we’ve seen those disputes becoming more complex. With her experience and background, Frances is extremely well placed to support what is a growth area for us.’
Elsewhere, Sidley Austin added to its M&A and private equity practice with Linklaters partner Parthiv Rishi in Singapore.
Rishi is experienced in advising corporates and financial institutions on M&A transactions, joint ventures and corporate restructurings. He also advises private equity funds and financial sponsors.
Sidley Asia Pacific managing partner Constance Choy said: ‘Parthiv’s collaborative nature and natural ability to establish strong client relationships will make him a great fit for our global team. He strengthens our already substantial ability to provide private equity and corporate clients with a robust offering that transcends international borders.’
Rishi’s hire follows a string of appointments made across Sidley’s global M&A and private equity group in the past year, includin New York partner Brien Wassner from Shearman & Sterling, Adam Weinstein and Tony Feuerstein from AkinGump, John Butler from Davis Polk & Wardwell as well as Los Angeles partner Mehdi Khodadad from Cooley and London partner Eleanor Shanks from Proskauer Rose.
Finally, CMS has appointed intellectual property partner Jonathan Chu in Hong Kong, who joins from Stephen Harwood. Chu advises on IP rights, litigation and enforcement strategies in Hong Kong and China.
CMS’ head of Asia-Pacific IP and global co-head of CMS life sciences & healthcare sector group, Nick Beckett, said: ‘The appointment of Jonathan and his team is a key part of our strategy to develop our IP practice in Asia-Pacific. We are setting up a whole new practice in Hong Kong, where we will now have full IP capability at both a local and international level.’
muna.abdi@legalbusiness.co.uk